Electric Cars Are Coming, But Few Buyers Are Interested

There will be more than 100 different vehicles available in five years.

electric cars
An electric car charges batteries at a Mobi.E point by the river. (Photo by Horacio Villalobos - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images)

Drivers are still not excited about battery-powered vehicles, but automakers are planning to roll out more than a hundred new models in the next five years. Currently, electric cars comprise only one percent of auto sales worldwide, and even less in the U.S. By 2025, those numbers won’t be that much higher: only 2.4 percent of U.S. demand and less than 10 percent globally. But battery prices are declining rapidly and Tesla Inc.’s stock price is on a tear, so other automakers are rushing to get in the game with their own all-electric models. In total, 127 battery-electric models will be introduced worldwide over the next half-decade. Wall Street continues to reward Tesla, whose shares are up about 60 percent this year. Meanwhile, Ford has gained closer to five percent. There’s growing hope in the saying, “If you build it, they will come.” But the rush to build electric cars in the face of uncertain demand has let some auto suppliers on edge as they quickly build factories and invest in developing components of electric-run cars.

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